'GIRLS KEEP SWINGING’

PAULINE MURRAY AND THE INVISIBLE GIRLS Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls (Illusive) AT LAST‑the right balance between Pauline Murray's preciousness, petulance, personality and musical / lyrical perspective.

Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls is the heart and soul of Penetration (bassist Robert Blamire and Murray) intertwined with the ghostly grace and congruent style of Factory (everything from Vini Reilly's iridescent guitar through to Peter Saville's trim packaging). All that was great about Penetration, their fluid sense of movement and dynamics, is ingeniously orchestrated by The Invisible Girls (who are Martin Hannett and keyboardist Steve Hopkins ‑they arrange and produce the music, Vini Reilly as'special guest', John Maher, Robert Blamire and percussionists Dave Rowbotham and Dave Hassell).

Penetration attempted to build something expansive and elaborate with limited experience. As a group they were always near greatness but they were trapped by punk roots and environment. Here, though, Murray and Blamire have produced something that's a mighty long way from punk, from 'Don't Dictate'. It's a hit.

Starting with side two, 'Drummer Boy' (Murray) is essentially Durutti Column (Reilly's sitaresque guitar, soft hand percussion, Hannett effects) blended with Murray's vocal ‑irresistible. The slender 'Thundertunes' (Murray / Blamire) works because it lacks the ugly riffy guitar others would have been tempted to use. 'When Will We Learn' (Murray/ Blamire) then slots Reilly's uniquely lyrical guitar inside a wavering rock structure, spins moods like the best blues, floats off into a typical Hannett sign off.

Mr X' (Murray / Blamire) and 'Judgement Day' are emotional, instrumental and vocal pinnacles. Lovely songs of anxiety, malaise and self‑doubt: Pauline Murray sings of the the love of love, fear of fear, of suspicion and retribution, and consistently captures the drama in dream. Mr X' is built around a Peter Hook‑type bass line, the mood intensifying until it disintegrates into a bubble of effect and percussion. 'Judgement Day' again has a strong theme at its core, the arrangement building up from that with giddy luxury. The song gives the LP a suitable sombre finale. Hannett, of course, fades it out.

Hannett's production is cracking: ornate yet never opaque, discreetly echoed and gently warped to the point of hallucination. What he does to Blamire (whose bass in never less than excellent, and who has undoubtedly contributed more to the record than I've given him credit) and Maher's potent Girls are tied down by no prejudices or inhibitions. Hannett and Hopkins lend needed maturity and substance to Pauline's flights of fantasy.

This is sophistication, and it's nothing to be ashamed of. There is no pretence that a ragged edge or a discordant solo is the pasword to credibility. The music is wildly eclectic ‑ look for Chic slick, Springsteen hope and glory, Wonder resource, gothic spaciousness, post‑punk passion, all ethnically touched up‑yet very distinctive. This is the romantically infused easy listening epic Patti Smith never made with 'Easter', Murray's personal touches, the quiet fire of her bewilderment and almost lullaby‑lii:e disillusionment transforming it into a great work of passion.

Side One's 'Screaming In The Darkness' (Murray/Blamire) is a dream start. Ripe, supple, faintly funky, Murray's vital vocal is delightfully double tracked on the chorus and surrounded by echo elsewhere, the arrangement tickled by mock‑majestic piano. The single 'Dream Sequence' (Murray) is indicative of the LP's intimacy and insidiousness. Blamire defines a memorable theme with the bass in 'European Eyes' (Murray / Blamire), Hannett playfully squiggles about in the mix. Alt the while Murray's vocals are just getting hotter. All those lasses lauded by so‑called experts, Elaine Page, Kate Bush etc. for what it's worth are torn to tatters both by the raw sound of Murray's voice and how she phrases and spits and grits and dips and trips and. . .

'Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls' is superb entertainment.

Paul Morley